US Readies New $1BN Arms Sale To Israel As Netanyahu Arrives In Washington

While the name of the game for Trump has been cut, cut, cut and put a halt to all wasteful and corrupt US foreign aid siphoned abroad, funds sent to Israel have remained untouched.

And now the Trump administration is readying a new $1 billion arms sale to Israel, including 4,700 1,000-pound bombs and armored bulldozers. Trump is requesting fresh Congressional approval for the potential sale.

The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story Monday, wrote “The planned weapons sales include 4,700 1,000-pound bombs, worth more than $700 million, as well as armored bulldozers built by Caterpillar, worth more than $300 million, the officials said.”

“The new arms requests, which would be paid for from the billions of dollars in annual U.S. military aid to Israel, come as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is visiting Washington and set to meet President Trump on Tuesday to discuss the cease-fire in Gaza, a separate truce in Lebanon and tensions in the wider Middle East,” the report continued.

This comes amid the backdrop of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s arriving in Washington D.C. on Monday, ahead of his scheduled White House visit with Trump Tuesday.

Crucially, Netanyahu will be the first world leader to meet with Trump since the Jan.20 inauguration. Israel remains America’s closest official Mideast ally, and a meeting between a new president and Israel’s head of state is typical spanning back multiple administrations.

But these are sensitive times, given the fragile Gaza ceasefire and hostage/prisoner swap deal is still ongoing. Some hardliners close to Netanyahu oppose it, even while families of the hostages have pressed for it to go all the way until all hostages alive and deceased are returned.

The Tuesday meeting in the Oval Office is expected to be dominated by these several issues:

• Preserving the Gaza ceasefire
• A potential deal to finally achieve Israel-Saudi relations
• Moving forward with a total $8 billion in arms transfers

These issues are somewhat interlocking. Trump has stood with Netanyahu on the stance of wanting to see the final military eradication of Hamas, but Trump has also hailed the ceasefire as ultimately the product of his administration entering office.

As for the arms transfers issue, WSJ has detailed the following:

Netanyahu and other Israeli officials are expected to press Trump to move forward with a separate set of arms transfers that were initially requested by the Biden administration, totaling more than $8 billion in new bombs, missiles and artillery rounds.

The Biden administration notified key congressional leaders about that sale in January before it left office. The weapons haven’t yet received full approval because of a hold by some Democratic lawmakers, a congressional official said.

Last week, Trump within released a hold on a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel previously paused by the Biden administration.

And on Monday, the US has moved to cut all funding to the controversial UN aid organization present in Palestinian territories - the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The US has long sided with Israel regarding the accusation that it is compromised by local Hamas staffers, or Hamas-sympathetic officials.